The Return - An Avengers Endgame Story
by AlessNox
Summary: What happens when half the world just disappears one day? What happens when they return? A story of one family in the Avengers Endgame universe.


Mary looked up at the clock in fear. It was six thirty-five and her son Joseph hadn't come back with the groceries yet. If she was late with dinner again, Dom might black out the other eye this time, or worse break her legs like he had threatened to do if Joseph followed through on his promise to tell the police.

She had sent Joseph to the store instead of going herself because she didn't have the heart to come up with another excuse to tell the nice lady at the shop about why her eye was swollen. She could only fall down the steps so many times, and her house only had one story.

If Joseph didn't return soon, then she wouldn't have time to cook the steak and potatoes that Joseph preferred. And if dinner wasn't ready when he arrived, then he would rage and yell and hit her again and again as he had yesterday when she had asked for some money to send Joseph to town to take the exams needed to apply for college.

Perhaps if she turned on the TV it would delay him a bit. There was probably some news on about the superheroes. Dom liked to watch news about the superheroes. He would sit back in his recliner and laugh at their silly costumes and talk about what he would do if he had their power.

**Iron man** was Dom's favorite, because he was strong, rich, and could get all the girls. Joseph liked **Spiderman**. He wanted to be able to climb walls and fly away on a string. He also confessed to wanting to be able to tie Dom up with spidersilk if he ever tried to raise a hand to his mother again. Mary told them that she didn't have a favorite superhero, but she liked **Antman**, because sometimes, like now, she wanted to shrink away into nothing and hide so that when Dom returned, he could yell, and stomp around the place and never find her.

Just then, the door opened and Joseph rushed in mouth wide, with his shopping bag swinging from his arm.

"Mother! Thank god you're here."

"Of course I'm here Joseph. What's wrong?"

"They've gone, they've gone!"

"Who?"

"Almost everybody. Disappeared from the street, from moving cars, they just crumbled to sand. I looked up and saw an airplane fall out of the sky!"

He rushed over, wrapping his arms around her as he cried. She held him close, even though the cold meat was uncomfortable against her hip. She held him tight until his tears stopped falling and his muscles stopped shaking. Then she told him to turn on the TV and sit on the couch. She had just enough time left to finish dinner.

The news was about accidents and disappearances of the famous and the unknown alike. It seemed that half of the population was gone just like that!

Joseph asked if that extended to the animals as well. Would half the dogs belonging to the old man at the corner have just crumbled away? Mary laid the food out on the table, and then sat down on the couch beside Joseph to wait.

They waited, and waited. Seven-thirty, eight, nine, ten. At ten-fifteen, Mary called Dom's work, but he wasn't there. There was only the receptionist screaming about dust.

She sent Joseph to bed, and put the rest of the food away. Then Mary turned the volume down low and sat watching the news before falling asleep herself on the couch.

The next morning at dawn, she could hear the birds singing. It was quieter than she had ever remembered the city being. She walked outside, but no one else was up. Mary made Joseph breakfast, and then for the first time since kindergarten, she walked him to school.

The place was in chaos. Half of the teachers were gone, but so were half of the students. There was no Principal, no Vice principal, and the head teacher was trying to arrange students into new classes. Mary volunteered to help, and she stood in the cafeteria with those little children who had refused to leave their remaining siblings. Some of them were crying. One wrapped her little arms around Mary's legs clinging to her because her own mother was gone.

She walked the children to the nearby primary school where she was quickly drafted to help. She picked up children, and dried their eyes, before taking them out to play. That evening, as the sun began to set, and the last child went home with her brother, the former secretary, now Principal gave Mary a big hug and asked her to please come back tomorrow.

Mary walked home, past crashed cars and the sound of sirens to find Joseph cooking pasta. They ate at the table while the TV droned on about the continuing disaster. Mary looked up at the clock. It was eight at night, and Dom still had not returned.

She went to school every day. And when the world settled down a bit, she was given a job there. So many children were missing family. She was given a room which she dressed up in soothing colors. She furnished it with soft couches, and stuffed animals, and even a bed. When a child asked to, they were allowed to come to her room. She would hug them and offer them a drink of water or tea, and a place to sit and cry if they needed to.

She went to the library and found books that she put on a bookshelf in the corner. Then she read for them, and after a while, so many students asked to come to her reading times, that they made it a regular event at the school.

After lunch, she would sit at the microphone used for announcements, and open a book about a lonely duck, or a kitten that had found itself alone on the street, and she would read about its adventures. All of the stories ended with them learning that they were strong and able to cope. They found new family, and were able to deal with their loss. The students loved her, but not only them. She had seen more than one teacher wipe an eye at the end of one of her stories.

When a student asked for a recording to listen to as she went to bed, Mary wrote her own story and recorded it using the equipment in the language lab. Soon other people asked for her recordings, so she started selling them. Before long, she was making a steady income from it, one that promised to be greater than she'd ever had before.

Joseph got into NYU on a full scholarship. Without the constant worrying about her, he could focus on his studies, and the competition for places had been halved.

When he left home, Mary was so proud, but she found herself alone for the first time. So used her time and her new found success to redo her house and her life.

She took martial arts and singing lessons. She threw out the old recliner, and redid the entire apartment in her favorite colors. She ripped down the heavy curtains that she'd hidden behind for most of her life, and put up lighter white ones that blew in the breeze and glowed in the morning sunshine.

One day when the school was closed for unnatural disaster, Joseph called her to say that he was coming home. There was talk of an invasion, and when it came, he wanted to be home. She told him to be careful traveling, and to stop and seek cover if the sky began to fall.

Mary went to the dojo for practice. She and her Sifu were the only ones there. When she left, her teacher gave her a wooden staff to take home with her.

"Just in case," she said.

Mary was shocked when she heard the news of the return. Spiderman was back! She heard the door open, and she rose to tell Joseph the news. She really ought to have changed the locks.

"What the hell is all this!" Dom cried as he walked in on her newly redesigned and painted kitchen. "And where's my dinner!"

She stared at him, and he stared at her. She was different, her hair cut short and her clothes more bright. Dom was exactly the same.

"Forget it! This day has been insane." he said. "I'm going to bed. Just make sure dinner is ready for me in the morning."

She could hear him in the bathroom cursing that his toothbrush and shampoo were gone. She stood in shock, listening him stomp about until finally, there was silence.

Mary sat down in front of the television and listened to the news. All over the world, people were returning. There was celebration. Fireworks even.

She heard the sound of cars honking and realized that it was morning. She had sat up all night. She walked into the kitchen, put on her apron and started cooking.

She made bacon and egg sandwiches. Four of them. Dom had always had a big appetite. Then she took off her apron and went to search the back of the closet.

She'd packed his things away years ago. She had meant to donate them, but in those days no one had needed the extra clothes. She put the suitcase on the floor near the door, draping his coat over the top of it.

Then Mary looked around her house. It was HER house despite what Dom had told her when he threatened to throw her out on the street. She had seen the title. Her mother had left it solely in her name.

It was just one of the many lies that Dom had told her. Lies like how she was worthless, how she had no skills and no talent, and would never amount to anything. Lies about how she was weak.

She put the sandwiches into a brown paper bag, and sat it on the table. Then Mary grabbed her wooden staff. No, she was not weak, and when Dom woke, and she kicked him out of her house, she would show him just how strong she was.


End file.
